This invention relates generally to gas chromatography and, more particularly, to the paraffin, naphthene and aromatic analysis of reformer feedstock and product.
Frequent changes in feedstock quality for catalytic reformers has created a need for an on site instrument which can quickly provide information on feed and product composition changes to assist in plant surveillance and process tuning. The failure to recognize poor plant performance or upset at an early stage can lead to a serious loss in reformer yields and/or a premature need for catalyst regeneration. In the past characterizing of reformer feeds and products has generally been done by a combination of gas chromatography and analytical chemistry methods in a central laboratory which is usually remote from the refinery. This technique is time consuming and often leads to a sizable delay between the times the sample is taken and the results are made available to the refinery.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of and apparatus for analyzing a hydrocarbon sample from a reformer process to provide a rapid and detailed analysis of the paraffin, naphthene and aromatic composition of the sample.